


A Study by Penguins

by Small_Hobbit



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Penguins, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-29 04:57:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3883156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A real do over of BBC's Sherlock, yes, this is the Penguin!AU you probably weren't waiting for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Study by Penguins

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ's Fan Flashworks Amnesty Challenge: Do-Over Prompt

The Emperor penguin waddled his way along the stony path, his mind clearly on a difficult problem.  Behind him waddled a King penguin, which seemed to be having some difficulty.  
  
“Couldn’t you waddle a little slower, Sherlock?” the King penguin called.  “You know this uneven ground is difficult for me with my bad foot.”  
  
“Don’t be absurd, JW!” the penguin named Sherlock squawked back.  “I keep telling you there is nothing wrong with your foot and it is entirely psychosomatic.  We need to get to the crime scene before that fool of an Adelie penguin muddies the whole area.”  
  
Nevertheless, Sherlock did slow down sufficiently for JW to catch up with him and they waddled over the top of the hill together.  
  
As soon as she saw them approaching, a Chinstrap penguin muttered, “Really, sir, you didn’t need to send for the armada.  We could have dealt with this by ourselves.”  
  
The Humboldt penguin being addressed replied, “I sense in my feathers this is not as simple as it looks, Donovan, which is why I sent for Sherlock.  And do try and be polite towards him.”  
  
Donovan muttered, “I’ll be as polite to him as he is to me then, sir.”  
  
The Humboldt penguin was about to reply, but was hailed by the Emperor penguin, which strutted towards him.  
  
“Glad to see you’ve seen sense this time, Lestrade, and called me in at the beginning,” Sherlock squawked.  
  
“It’s obviously a case of egg stealing,” the Adelie penguin remarked.  “Any half-grown chick can see that.”  
  
Sherlock inspected the nest site.  “Wrong!  The egg wasn’t stolen, it was given away.”  
  
Lestrade, the Humboldt penguin, asked, “How can you know that?”  
  
“No sign of any stones or nesting materials being disturbed.  Had it been taken in a hurry the footprints would be one on top of the next; here they are more spaced out.”  
  
Sherlock absentmindedly scratched his head with his flipper and his deerstalker fell off.  JW picked it up and pushed it back to him, wondering, as he always did, why Sherlock insisted on wearing such a stupid hat.  
  
Sherlock looked around, his beady black eyes taking in the whole scene.  Suddenly he squawked loudly and waddled across to look at some further prints.  “These are the footprints of a Rockhopper penguin.”  
  
That were various squawks of “What?” and “How’s that possible?” before they heard the loud cackling squawk from the rocky outcrop behind them.   
  
“Did you miss me?”  
  
JW tried to see where the squawk had come from and in looking upwards managed to fall over onto his back.  
  
Sherlock sighed.  “Why am I surrounded by idiots?”

**Author's Note:**

> I do realise that it is not common for different types of penguin to live together in one colony - or indeed share a habitant - but there again, how many penguins do you see wearing deerstalkers?


End file.
